Hutton leaves AGO

Former CNMI chief prosecutor David Hutton disclosed yesterday that he has left his post at the Attorney General’s Office, where he last worked as special assistant attorney general on garment industry-related issues. He will be going back to the U.S. mainland.

Hutton said he decided not to renew his employment contract with the AGO after discussions with Attorney General Pamela Brown, who could not be reached at press time to comment. Hutton said his employment contract expired yesterday.

Hutton joined the AGO’s civil division on Aug. 12, 2002 and began his career with the AGO by handling the controversial Bank of Saipan receivership case. On March 21, 2003, he became the criminal division’s chief prosecutor. Brown assigned him special assistant attorney general effective April 17, 2005.

An attorney formerly working for the AGO’s criminal division, Karen Severy, had sued Hutton last June over allegations of sexual harassment. Hutton denied the allegations and said he would answer them in court.

“This has been one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. I loved the AGO,” Hutton said.

When he was chief prosecutor, Hutton said the AGO successfully prosecuted heinous crimes that included the first-degree murder of a Japanese tour coordinator by an employee of the Marianas Visitors Authority. The AGO obtained a 50-year prison sentence for the defendant, which became the highest prison term meted out by a CNMI court.

The AGO also prosecuted at least two other murder cases when Hutton was chief prosecutor. Those cases included the murder of a Filipina woman who was shot and hacked with a machete by her former boyfriend. The AGO obtained 50 years imprisonment for the defendant.

The other case involved the murder of a Chinese businessman inside his bar, which had been unsolved for several years until the case was reopened and brought to court in 2003.

“I could not have done those without the Criminal Investigation Bureau. CIB people came to my house 24 hours a day,” Hutton said. He said his most significant accomplishment for the AGO was building a bridge between the criminal division and the Department of Public Safety.

Hutton thanked the local people for his three years of stay in the Commonwealth, saying that learning the Chamorro culture and language has made him a better person.